Re: [xwiki-devs] [VOTE] New Translation property naming rules

Hi devs, At the moment the VOTED rule for naming our translation properties is the one defined at http://dev.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Community/DevelopmentPractices#HTransla… Back in 2012 Sergiu started drafting an extended "L10N Conventions” document for best practices around writing translation properties at http://dev.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Drafts/L10N+Conventions Sergiu sent this a proposal in this mail thread: http://markmail.org/message/ofl23yorvxsqhn4x When Sergiu did this he didn’t realize we already had a VOTED rule for naming our translation properties and his proposal was in conflit with that. However, in this mail thread, several developers mentioned that even though they votes the previous naming rules they didn’t fully like it and preferred the one Sergiu was proposing. Several suggestion for improvements were also proposed. It was suggested in that thread (and Sergiu agreed) that he should resend a VOTE to change those established rules. Apparently he didn’t get the time/will to do it since I couldn’t find such a mail. In addition several developers are apparently not following the current rules (BAD! :)). For example in the xwiki-platform-icon-ui module, the Translations.xml page has the following which is NOT following the current rules: platform.icon.picker.preview=Preview with: platform.icon.picker.loading=Loading And most translation keys found in contrib apps at http://l10n.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Contrib/WebHome are also not following these rules (although we don’t enforce anything for contrib projects, when they are coded by devs from the XWiki dev team or by known contributors, it would be a good thing to follow the same rule, especially as, in the future, we want to provide a path to move from contrib sandbox to contrib extensions). For example I see the following type of naming: “polls.vote.instructions.single”. Thus, with this email I’d like to try agreeing on a new naming format and conventions. I propose to VOTE for making http://dev.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Drafts/L10N+Conventions our official practice with the following change for the property naming part: " Keys should have the following format: ##[module]*[.section]*.element[.part]*##, where: * ##module## is the name of the module or application being translated, like ##blog##, ##faq##, ##statistics##… Since a module can have submodules, there can be several module names. For example the SOLR Search UI is located in ##xwiki-platform-search/xwiki-platform-solr/xwiki-platform-solr-ui## and would have keys starting with ##search.solr.##. * zero, one or more ##section## parts that further refine the location of the string being translated; for example, a key starting with ##theme.colors.wizard.## refers to a text located in the //wizard// for the //color// part of the //theme// application (currently there are only color themes, but in the future we might add icon themes, layout themes, and so on), ##macro.python.parameter.## refers to //parameters// of the //python// //macro//, while a key starting with ##userdirectory.## belongs to the main and only section of the //user directory// application * ##element## identifies the main element being translated, but such an element could have several related parts. * ##part## identifies a text related to a main element, such as the ##label## that describes an input, the ##placeholder## found inside that input, the ##tooltip## that appears when hovering that input, the ##hint## that is displayed before the field and provides additional details about what it, the ##error.empty## or ##error.invalidFormat## displayed when there are validation errors, and so on Individual parts of the key should use **camelCase** if more than one word is needed to identify the element. “ Note that I’ve removed the ##product## part from Sergiu’s proposal (the reasoning is here: http://markmail.org/message/ocijlegslw45yedu). In short this makes it simpler to move apps around without breaking the translation keys. Of course it reduces the namespace and increases likelihood of translation clashes with user-provided extensions but I don’t think it’s going to be a problem and user-provided extensions should have a unique app name anyway. I would also point to http://dev.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Community/DevelopmentPractices#HTransla… for the deprecation part. The big question is what to do with existing translations and the only answer I have so far is: * Use the new rules when adding new translation keys (after, and if, it’s voted) * Don’t touch existing keys for now (since that would loose all translations) but implement the following first, and once it’s done, refactor existing translations over time: ** Add support for a deprecation section in Translations.xml’s content, honoured by l10n in the same way that we do it for ApplicationResources.properties ** Add the new key ** Move the old key to the deprecation section (in ApplicationResources.properties or in Translations.xml) ** Make the old key point to the new key, using a special syntax. For example: my.old.deprecated.key = @{new.shiny.key} Here’s my +1 Thanks -Vincent